玩耍的小学教育
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今日的正规教育科目繁杂，老师填鸭式的教育，以及父母害怕孩子们输在起跑点，尽量在课余时间让孩子诸多的补习。学子们的童年被课本压得喘不过气来。他们的学习生涯很痛苦。

难怪有些父母宁愿每个月多花千余元马币将一个孩子送去非正规的学校去接受‘玩耍的教育’。

半世纪前，我们所接受的‘玩耍教育’每月只需交学费两块半。当时的学科项目少。老师很少给学生功课上的压力。父母也完全不理会孩子们在学校里的学习进度。

我们男生的学习态度很马虎，犹如做一日和尚敲一天钟。遇到难学、难懂的英语课程，干脆偷偷跑进厠所迴避。所以到了上中学的时候，我们认识的英语词汇少之又少，常常被中学预备班老师痛骂一顿；“Idiot! Idiot ! ”不绝于耳。

我们学习华语的态度也不见得好到那里。虽然小三那一年我们有学习华语併音，但是我们始终没有学会掌握它。反而还会取笑和模仿班上的“老马”(Lau Beh)同学卷舌头音。

记得五年级那年，我们的级任老师，蔡喜骏老师，曾经在壁报拦展示班上同学们优秀的大楷书法作品。不幸的是，我和一些同学的作品也被选中来展示作为同学们的负面教材。这是因为我们写字不专心，为了交差而草草了事。

六年级那一年我们被编排在英国人园丘医院医疗室被改造成课室上课，所以我们的课室比一般的课室长一倍多。我们的级任老师是王进昌老师。学年开始时，我因为矮小，所以被安排坐在前面第一排第三个位置。几个月后，我因为“坐立不安”，令他人起不必要的煩脑，而被王老师‘留放到’教室最尾端坐，目的是要让我在‘边疆’自生自灭。

在我还没有‘流放’以前，我们坐在前面的同学在上课时会刻意挑逗某两位同学，让他们彼此产生敌意，并鼓弄他们在该天下午学校补习过后在印度小学后面的草场来个决斗，好让我们作壁上观。这种玩意我们轮流上演;主角换人而已。

当年的非正规教育～老师讲故事～最为大家所津津乐道的。二年级时傅木桂老师讲‘武松打虎’。三年级时沈丽珠老师讲‘崂山七合’。五年级时，蔡喜骏老师讲‘水浒传’，而高璧煕老师则讲‘三门街’。这是唯一的时候同学们能静下来专心‘听课’。我们的邓长权同学就是因为听了高老师讲的‘三门街’的故事有所启发而对学习和研究中国文学产生莫大的兴趣。今天他能在文坛上作出不少的贡献，或许应该归功邓同学当年专心听高老师的课。今天他可以被称为当代马华知名的田园作家。

当年我们热爱上学，并不是因为我们热爱追求学术上的知识，而是在于学校能提供游戏的场所给我们。我们在不同的季节、不同的时间和不同的场合玩不同的游戏或球类活动：如跳高，跳远，乒乓球，篮球，足球，羽毛球，藤球 ，橄榄球和去小溪游泳。一般上，我们放学回家吃完午餐后就会重新回到学校来活动。

我们玩耍的小学教育是多么的写意啊！

A Blessed Gathering

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It's never be an easy thing for people to converge as most people would have diverged priorities and obligations that would hinder them to  attend a gathering. So, the effort  to gather all the friends or ex-classmates together is just a wishful thinking.

But to get some to meet together is definitely a "makan kacang putih" matter.  With this in mind, we had decided to proceed with a buffet lunch gathering at the Hotel Jen, Magazine Road, Penang, on November 10, 2015, when Mooi Eng had expressed a wish to meet up with her ex-classmates during her recent visit to her siblings in Penang.

Mr. Ng Huang Leng is always our patron every time we gather. This time around was no exception. He and his wife had duly accepted our invitation although we had let him down in our last aborted gathering due to poor response of participants.

Mr. Ng had been very closed to us as we were his pioneered batch of students when he started his teaching career. He was a student-friendly teacher. He seldom scolded us so much so that at times we tried to 'pull his leg' and to create jokes out of him.

I remember Mr. Ng had taught us Mathematics in our Form One class. In a lesson of Geometry, Mr. Ng showed us the steps to prove a certain theorem. As a normal practice, at the end of a proof, he would write 'Q.E.D.',the symbol to show that a proof was executed. Mr. Ng would always jokingly tell us that "  the proof was "Quite Easily Done."

Mooi Eng was very pleased to meet up with Mr. Ng as this was the second time she had met him after she left school forty years ago. Both of them had a good  time catching up with each other.

In this gathering I accidentally discovered ' a body language of mine' from a former classmate which I had never realised myself while I was a kid.

Mok Thye Choo(莫泰珠) was my neighbour at the side lane. She told me that she always saw me leaning against my mother whenever she was chatting with others in the neighbourhood. Was I so pampered then? I wonder.

Actually, most of us did not expect to have such a gathering in so short time a notice. We were also surprised to see a good turn up of a total of eighteen people, among them were a few first timers.

This gathering was a blessed one indeed as we could summon the help and cooperation of a few fellow classmates.  We counted ourselves as blessed souls who were able to catch up with one another. Our forefathers had always reminded and cautioned the old folks that " to meet others for another time could be just a luxurious and a far fetching matter." Either you cherish it now or you would have no chance to regret later.

Make Hay While The Sun Shines

I just heard from a reliable source that the Sunrise coffee stall at the local market in Bukit Mertajam will close its business very soon. The proprietor of the coffee stall, Mr. Jeffrey, is prepared to uproot from Bukit Mertajam to stay in Kuala Lumpur.

All of us who had frequented his stall would feel a great loss to our taste buds as he would prepare beverage customised to satisfy the need of each and every customer.

A regular customer once commented," I seemed to enjoy the beverage in a hotel but paying the price to a foodcourt vendor."

This was exactly how everyone who patronised the stall felt.

Life is always like that, good thing never lasts. I only discovered this 'gem' of the  Sunrise coffee stall a year ago but now "I can't see the Sunrise" early in the morning to taste the best coffee prepared in the town of Bukit Mertajam.

The lesson I learned from here is that good thing never lasts long. We better enjoy and cherish it while it is still  around and we should never  "  cry over spilled milk" as a well known adage says,

" make hay while sun the shines. "

乡愁？
Nostalgia?

那天在同学聚会得到一个漏网新闻。
The other day I heard of a news from a former classmate during the buffet lunch gathering on November 10, 2915 at Hotel Jen.

小学时候一个坐在前排的矮小的女同学看到一位从中国南来教书的男老师正打开一封家书来阅读，他一面读一面掉眼泪。亲情远隔重洋，无从相见，思乡之情，怎么不让堂堂男子汉掉落英雄泪。
这就是所谓乡愁。
Once during a class lesson in the primary school,  a man teacher who was a first generation immigrant from the mainland China was reading a letter he received from  his ancestral land. A shorty girl who was sitting at the front row noticed that tears were rolling down the cheeks of the teacher while he was going through the letter. The girl could not comprehend that a man teacher could be so emotional while reading a letter.
It was truly a natural reaction for one to feel in the similar way as love ones were parted far apart by the South China Seas with practically no chance of meeting one another due to political and economical constraints.

所以, 'Balik tongsan'(回唐山) 有 它的积极意义。它能暂时疏解乡愁。
As such, we cannot blame a person wanting to "'Balik Tongsan" as it is the only and the surest way for one to have a temporary relief of nostalgia.

《乡愁》
Nostalgia

《余光中诗歌》

"小时候，
乡愁是一枚小小的邮票，
我在这头，
母亲在那头。
长大后，
乡愁是一张窄窄的船票，
我在这头，
新娘在那头。
后来啊，
乡愁是一方矮矮的坟墓，
我在外头，
母亲在里头。
而现在，
乡愁是一湾浅浅的海峡，
我在这头，
大陆在那头。"

~英文译文(English Translation)

"When I was young,
my homesickness was a small stamp,
I was here,
my mother was there.
After growing up,
my homesickness was a narrow ticket,
I was here,
my bride was there.
Later,
my homesickness was a little tomb,
I was outside,
my mother was inside.
And now,
my homesickness is a shallow strait,
I am here,
the mainland is there."

Missing In Action

On November 8, 2015, we went to Sepatang to have seafood. This was the third successive event of the series of food hunting organised by my former student,Melanie, and her classmates.

We had our breakfast at the Larut Matang Food Court at Taiping.

I tried the mee noodle at a stall where I saw many people queued up for their turn to be served.

After the breakfast we adjourned to the Taiping Lake Garden to enjoy the fresh air and scenic view that Nature could offer.

At the car park there we saw a rent-a-bicycle service. Most of us were very enthusiastic wanting to have a bicycle ride around the Lake Garden.

We checked with the Malay proprietor regarding  the rate of hiring a bike. He told us that he would charge RM 5 per bicycle for half an hour duration. According to his experience in the trade, to cycle  round the lake would take about twenty minutes and he would give us an allowance of extra ten minutes if we could not return the bike within thirty minutes.

From the narrative of the proprietor and my past experience touring the Lake Garden , I assumed  it would be an easy job to cycle round the lake within the stipulated time.

I thought if I cycled along the road in a counterclockwise  direction, I would be able to come back to the starting point once I had completed a full circle like what the Portuguese sailor Ferdinand Magellan who had sailed around the World in a similar way.

I cycled  along the road built on an undulating terrain. After cycling for more than twenty minutes, I realised  I  was nowhere nearer to the car park bay where I hired my bicycle.

I knew I was not following the route I was supposed to.

The only way for me to get back to the starting point was to cycle in the reversed direction along the road where I came from.

As I was doing that I received a phone call from Melanie who was anxious of my whereabout. She asked me to tell her my nearest landmark so that she and the others would be able to locate my location and to  come to my rescue.

Melanie and two others arrived twenty minutes later in a car to fetch me. I pitied a student of mine who had to cycle my bicycle to be returned to the owner.

My missing in action was mainly due to my underestimation of the vastness of the Lake Garden compound and my ignorance of the changes of the landscape of the vicinity of the Lake Garden over the last few decades.

Nevertheless, it was a good experience of temporarily missing in action although I was rather thirsty and exhausted after such an unforgettable event.

尽所能、取所需。

某天早上我们去大山脚Kampung Baru巴杀对面店铺的乡镇飲食馆用早点。

我比较喜欢吃它店里摆档所卖的筒筒面和米苔目；要在这两者之间作个选择很令我很难取捨。有时我乾脆各叫一碗来满足那贪得无厌的味蕾，害得肚子负担沉重。

筒筒面和米苔目都是业者，林锦坤先生，本身经过多次的研发而制作而成的。筒筒面和米苔目吃起来很爽口而且吃多也不腻。

筒筒面和米苔目小碗的卖价是马币四块钱；其份量的多寡业者也很用心且很专业地做个市场调查。一旦业者发现有七十巴仙的食客满意一碗面食的份量可以吃得够饱，业者就维持每碗既定的份量，不加更改。

业者的工作态度可嘉。他肯虚心学习。顾客的建议他都会欣然接受作为参考。难怪他的顾客与日俱增，客似云来。据说有一对夫妻每天都“来报到”。我们一星期也会‘报到’一、两回。

正所谓：“业者各尽其所能，食客各取所需。”双赢策略，皆大欢喜。

贪便宜者失便宜

这句话老祖宗讲了几世纪也没有用，因为人性的弱点是与生俱来的。

有一天中午我在一间专卖店(The Little Nyonya Cuisine)看到一碗拉面只卖十一块，以为很有“着数”(便宜)，因为我从来没见过这么便宜的拉面。一般上一碗的拉面最少要十多二十块才能吃到。个中原因是真正的拉面是师父现拉现煮的。

因此我叫了一碗拉面来尝尝。当拉面端上桌子上来的时候，我才领悟到“贪便宜者失去便宜”的真理。原来这碗拉面並非我熟悉的拉面。它只是一包类似金旦面加了一粒蛋和三条的香肠。如果我自己在家里准备的话，一碗金旦面成本不需要三块钱。

“ 贪便宜者失便宜”真是千古不变的真理。

蓝天白云

以前,有谁会去管天空是不是蓝的，云层是不是白的，就像我们往往轻易地忽略了空气对我们的生存的重要性和必要性。

等到我们多年来长时间受到邻国飘来烟霾的灾害，使我们很难得一见蓝天白云，我们才惘然大悟，原来清新的空气不再是必然的。要拥有新鲜的空气，人类本身要重视环境保护。而蓝天白云只是新鲜空气的指标。没有蓝天白云，那来新鲜的空气？